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The Official Website
www.ThomasAndFriends.com, www.ThomasTheTankEngine.com, or www.ThomasTheTankEngineAndFriends.com, is the official website of Thomas and Friends. The English website was launched in 1996 by The Britt Allcroft Company. The first version of the site was created by NetSite Productions Limited. In 2013, an official PBS Kids website of Thomas and Friends was created when the show started to air more often. In 2015, the website underwent a major overhaul. It now has two separate home pages for children and parents created by Moving Interactive, which had later been nominated for "Best Website for a TV Series" alongside its minisite for the special Tale of the Brave games and applications. HiT Entertainment has also launched official Thomas and Friends websites in other languages. Content * Games * Characters/Engines * Videos * Activities * TV Information * My Station * Downloads List of all the official websites around the world * United States of America ** PBS Kids Website * Canada * United Kingdom (Parents) * United Kingdom (Kids) * Australia * New Zealand * France * Germany * Italy * Spain * Netherlands * Latin countries * Brazil * Japan * China Trivia * According to HiT Entertainment, the site has circa 23 million hits and 1.7 million visitors every month. * Each official website was different at one point: ** The UK, USA and AUS sites featured special homepages for Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Carnival Capers, The Great Discovery, Hero of the Rails, Misty Island Rescue, Day of the Diesels, Blue Mountain Mystery, King of the Railway, Spills and Thrills, Tale of the Brave, Dinos and Discoveries, Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure and The Great Race. * The PBS site has featured instrumental versions of Streamlining, The Best Friends Express, and It's Christmas Time . * On the US and UK Kids version of the website, an instrumental version of Never Overlook A Little Engine is played on the homepage. * The Japanese site has a blog, which is updated every week. * Gordon's page correctly says he's the senior member of the Engine Family. * Railway Series characters, including Wilbert and Culdee were also given their own pages, but are now no longer accessible. * Sir Robert Norramby is titled "Earl Robert". * Because some characters share the same name, they go by a different name since the 2015 overhaul: ** Oliver was credited as "Oliver GWR No 11" since the Pack character of the same name was added as Oliver the Excavator. ** Bert was credited as "Iron Bert" since the Arlesdale Railway engine of the same name was added as Bert. * For a short time, Smudger's picture was represented by Stuart, but was corrected to have an image of himself. * Some of the voice clips on certain characters from the 2010 update are absent since the 2015 update. These include: ** Salty ** Rocky ** Sir Topham Hatt ** Mavis ** Victor ** Kevin * On the Dutch website, Colin, Flora and Hank are listed in the Engine Depot. But because the twelfth season was never broadcast in the Netherlands, which is the only season that these characters appeared in, the Dutch would not know about them. * Molly's page shows her with her larger prototype face. Goofs * Most recently in both the UK and the US, when the mouse moves over the "Home" and "Engines" icons, Sir Topham Hatt says them with his original US voice, while his current UK/US voice is heard on the "Games" and "Videos" options. This is the case with both the UK and the US websites. * On the UK/US home page, Thomas and James are missing their siderods. * On the UK website, when the "Meet the Earl" video clip was released on the King of the Railway minisite, the US version was shown. The same errors also occur on the video clips on the UK Spills and Thrills site. * Mavis used the term "cars" on the UK website before its recent update, but this is an American term for trucks. * The current "What's New" UK page shows a Thomas & Friends Live advert for Singapore, although Singapore is not part of the UK. * For unknown reasons, the official French, Chinese and Korean websites were never shown on the flags page. * Characters such as Terence, BoCo and George are not included in the Engine Depot. * Several characters are missing from the Japanese site, such as Bash, Luke, Winston, Owen and Merrick. * On the Dutch Tale of the Brave minisite, in the activity to find Timothy, it says to remove the "autos" (the trucks) to see which engine is hiding. However, "auto" is Dutch for "automobile". * The site title of the UK News page is incorrectly titled "Thomas de Stoomlocomotief: Nieuw". This is actually Dutch for "Thomas the Tank Engine: New". * On the US website's front page, the Tale of the Brave clip of Percy rescuing James from the landslide was from the UK dub, as James had his UK voice. * While Oliver's bio page features a picture and information on the engine of that name, it is incorrectly titled "Oliver the Excavator". * Despite being made in full CGI, Donald and Douglas' pictures still show them in their model series forms. ** Other characters who have CGI promos, like Trevor, Alfie, Max and Monty are not included at all. * On the US website, Sam's bio section originally incorrectly listed Spencer's information instead of Sam's, but has since been updated with his correct information. * In the 2005 US website, a 2 minute clip from the beginning of the eighth season episode, Too Hot for Thomas uses the UK narration, as Michael Angelis is heard narrating the story. * Ryan, Skarloey, Rheneas, Sir Handel, Peter Sam, Rusty, Skiff, Mike, Rex and Bert's promos show them off the rails. Duck's promo shows his right (viewer perspective left) wheels on the rails, but his left wheels are not. However, Skiff, Mike, Rex and Bert's promos were later updated so they were positioned onto the tracks. * On the "Engines" page, Bertie, Butch and Jack are posed on railway tracks, although they are not rail vehicles. Sailor John was also originally posed on railway tracks, but the tracks have since been removed. * On the "Engines" page, Mike, Rex and Bert are posed on narrow gauge tracks that are laid on top of standard gauge tracks, as the sleepers of the latter can be seen protruding from the sides of the former's ballast. * Skiff is on his rail wheels, but he was originally not positioned on the rails in his bio section. He has since been moved onto the track. * Diesel 10, Norman, Paxton, Sidney, Stafford and Toad are not on the rails. * On the US website, 'Arry's page is not featured on some engine pages but can still be accessed. * Toad's bio incorrectly states that he is a 20-ton brake van. * Annie and Clarabel's promos have a few goofs: ** Clarabel is missing her guard's compartment. ** Both coaches are shown with their coupling chains sticking forward, but another chain can be seen hanging down. * The 2015 website states that Henrietta is listed as one of the few characters without a face, but her promo shows her with her face as she gained one in the eighteenth season. * Connor, Caitlin, Millie, Stephen, Porter, and Alfie were on the site but since its most recent update, they have been removed for unknown reasons. * Philip is incorrectly spelled as 'Phil'l'ip' in his bio, but this was later corrected. * A white line can be seen behind Emily in the 2015 update. * Engines such as Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Emily, Whiff, Stanley, Spencer, Scruff, Salty, Mavis, Dart and Diesel have not had updated promos with their lamps. * On the German website, Bulgy, Mighty Mac, Sailor John, the Troublesome Trucks and Whiff have their English names and Philip's bio is not translated. * Ivan and Etienne are emitting steam on the "Engines" page despite the two not being steam engines. * Sir Handel's trailing wheels are off the tracks in the 2015 update. * On the Many Moods game on the PBS website when Toby has a new whistle, he has James' whistle sound. * During an update on the UK website, Emily has her US voice. * Spencer is incorrectly listed as belonging to a railway on Sodor. Category:Official site